Another half a million Israelis came under rocket attack before dawn Friday, July 11, as Hamas again expanded its rocket radius up to Haifa, 150 km north of the Gaza Strip. A woman of 70 collapsed and died running for shelter after the Haifa siren. Two Katyusha rockets from Lebanon alerted Metullah, Israel’s northernmost town, early Friday. One landed between the Galilee town and Kfar Yuval. There were no casualties. debkafile: It came from a Beqaa village under Hizballah rule. IDF artillery returned the fire. Hamas rocket attacks resumed against southern Israel.

Hamas broadened its massive rocket blitz Monday night, July 7 - edging further north and east to locales hitherto unscathed, after warning that its response to the deaths of seven operatives in Israeli air strikes would be “unprecedented.” Iron Dome intercepted at least 10 of the scores of rockets aimed at new urban areas – Lachish, Gan Yavneh, Kiryat Malachi, Beer Tuvia and Ashdod. The last rocket targeted Rehovot. Sirens sounded in the towns of Modiin, Ness Ziona, Gedera, Beit Shemes and Abu Ghosh indicating the approach of rockets.

Russia and Ukraine were heading Sunday, April 27, for their first military clash over the rebel-held town of Slavyansk, debkafile reports. The outcome will determine who controls the Donetsk region and possibly all of East of Ukraine – the separatists or the provisional government in Kiev. The engagement would potentially pit 11,000 special Russian forces based at Rostov on Don against 15,000 troops massed outside the flashpoint town of Slavyansk. President Barack Obama is finding it hard to enlist a US-European coalition for strong sanctions against Moscow.

Obama, while pretending to be dissatisfied with Iran’s nuclear concessions, accelerates the wording of a draft nuclear deal with Iran via Russia and prepares to spring it on the world as a big surprise.

Before ending his Middle East trip, Barack Obama finalized with Israeli, Turkish and Jordanian leaders his plans for a US-led military intervention in Syria to liquidate its chemical and biological arsenals.

The latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday expands on its disclosure of last week that during his visit to Israel, US President Barack Obama struck a deal with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for military action against Syrian chemical weapons. The new issue fleshed out that core decision with exclusive revelations on NATO’s role in setting up the expedition, its participants, targets and ramifications, including likely responses by Moscow and Tehran.
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The special report commissioned by the Congressional research center on a possibly Israel strike against Iran has some spectacular new findings which debunk the Obama administration’s conventional wisdom on Israel’s capacity. For instance, Israel would only need one-third of its air force to strike Iran.

US, Iranian and Israel planners have moved past discussion on whether Israel can be prevented from attacking Iran before the November election and are now talking about their various versions of a second strike option, which all agree will be more devastating than the first.

The big guns the Obama administration is firing in its dogged battle to head off an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program may be hitting an impenetrable wall. The dynamic of this titanic contest is explored in the latest DEBKA-Net-Weeklyout last Friday, with a rundown of the military preparations set in motion by the US, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, the UAEA, Iran, Hizballah and Israel itself.
Don’t miss this and more exclusives: Which country is giving Iran its most powerful sanctions-beating mechanism?

Cutting through the US-Israeli debate over where to put “red lines” for Iran, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Monday night, Sept. 3 that Iran would hit US bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities, even if the Americans were not involved in the attack. debkafile: Iran should have enough 20-percent enriched uranium for a bomb by next month. So Tehran expects an Israeli attack before the Nov. 6 US presidential election and has laid down its own red line for war.

Hillary Clinton leads a powerful State Department and Pentagon faction pushing for US military intervention in Syria. It is beginning to take effect. Obama called British and French leaders to tie up the ends of the assignment for small special operations teams to go into Syria and secure chemical weapons stocks.

A powerful US administration faction is pushing hard for military intervention in Syria now. It argues the time is ripe and fast action would have the added value of delaying an Israeli strike against Iran. Jumping into the fray, the latest DEBKA-Net-Weeklyout last Friday judged the strength of the anti-interventionists surrounding President Barack Obama. Their only concession was the president’s threat this week to Bashar Assad against using chemical and biological weapons.
So how close is America to a military operation in Syria?
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The White House this week scrambled to reconnect with Jerusalem after the Obama administration realized Israel was seriously contemplating a military operation against Iran’s nuclear program this fall - notwithstanding the heavy opposition guns aimed at it at home and from Washington. As Israel embarked on home front defense measures, Obama asked what it would take to hold Israel back before the Nov. 6 US presidential election. The answer: A solemn, binding US guarantee to strike Iran next spring - plus weapons upgrades.

US, Israeli, Saudi and Iranian war preparations are on fast forward, as the coming issue of DEBKA-Net-Weekly discloses in detail next Friday. All their leaders face agonizing decisions in the weeks ahead. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is on a tour of inspection to make sure US Middle East military forces are ready for an operation against Iran. Its timeline is now pared down to weeks because Iran's ongoing mega-fortifications threaten to make its nuclear facilities indestructible - even by American super-weapons.
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Aviation Week reports: “Evidence is mounting that the US defense community and the Obama administration view 2013 as the likely window for a bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities.” The chaos of the Syrian government’s fall could be used “to disguise such an attack,” the journal suggests. “The tools…are all operational.” Friday night, top US and Russian diplomats failed to bridge differences on Syria ahead of a UN-sponsored Action Group parley in Geneva. Military preparations are building up for an attack on Syria.

The Saudi royal house has set preparations in motion for a US attack on Iran in October. Its military is organizing defenses of government and oil terminals, as well as a counter-offensive if attacked by Iran. A new oil pipeline bypasses the Strait of Hormuz.